Dear STEM School Highlands Ranch Families,
We received notifications of 30 student COVID positive cases. All students and staff were instructed to move into isolation and remain there until symptoms have gone away.
- 3 – Kindergarten
- 1 – First Grade
- 1 – Second Grade
- 3 – Third Grade
- 2 – Fourth Grade
- 1 – Fifth Grade
- 3 – Sixth Grade
- 6 – Seventh Grade
- 2 – Eighth Grade
- 4 – Ninth Grade
- 2 – 10th Grade
- 2 – 12th Grade
With these additional cases, our kindergarten and ninth grade have moved into Outbreak Status, however, due to the timing of the connected cases, ninth-grade students can return for in-person learning on Wednesday, Jan. 19.
OUTBREAK AND QUARANTINE
An outbreak is deemed if we have five connected cases. The guidelines below are from Jogan Health (Douglas County Health Departments contract Health Agency and also from the Douglas County School District), CPDHE and the CDC.
- Kindergarten and ninth-grade students who are fully vaccinated and asymptomatic can remain at school and should wear a mask until the outbreak is resolved.
- To ensure adequate time for an immune response to occur, a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after completion of a two-dose mRNA series or one dose of Janssen vaccine.
- Unvaccinated kindergarten-grade students will need to quarantine for five days and can return to school on Monday, Jan. 24, 2022, if they are not showing symptoms of COVID-19 at that time and must wear a mask until the outbreak is resolved. Ninth-grade students can return to school tomorrow, January 19 and must wear a mask for until Monday, Jan. 24.
- Any student who is presumed positive has to quarantine.
- Any student who is showing or develops signs of illness should stay home and seek testing.
- If your student had COVID within the past 90 days and is asymptomatic they are excluded from the quarantine and can remain in person.
UPDATE – With the additional third, fourth, fifth, sixth, eighth and 10th-grade cases, any unvaccinated student who is currently in quarantine, must remain in quarantine and can return to school on the date listed below. Per updated CDC, CDPHE and Jogan Health guidelines, this date can be pushed again if there is another connected positive case.
- 3rd – Was 1/19 (Now 1/21)
- 4th – Was 1/20 (Now 1/21)
- 5th – Was 1/20 (Now 1/21)
- 6th – Was 1/19 (Now 1/21)
- 8th – Was 1/18 (Now 1/24)
- 10th – Was 1/20 (Now 1/24)
Students who are in quarantine/isolation should access their coursework via Canvas. We understand that this is not ideal and is frustrating. We are working internally to see what adjustments we can make so that our students in quarantine are not falling behind. We will not be providing synchronous learning at this time, as we made a commitment to our teachers that we would not add that additional workload.
We strongly encourage you to please take a look at our COVID Positive Tracking List for the most up-to-date list of both student and staff cases. Additionally, we’ve added an FAQ section to that page that answers some of the questions we’ve been receiving over the past two weeks.
As a reminder, please do not come to school with any symptoms and please do what you can to help us mitigate the spread of COVID.
RESOURCES
- When are you considered “fully vaccinated?” – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html
- Quarantine and Isolation – https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/quarantine-isolation.html
- How to find testing for Covid-19 – https://covid19.colorado.gov/testing
NOTIFYING STEM OF COVID-19 POSITIVE CASE
If your student tests positive for COVID-19, please contact our School Nurse, Mallory Jimenez ([email protected]) immediately. She will then notify the appropriate STEM Leadership Team members to then initiate our communication process. Ms. Jimenez will then provide instructions on the next steps.
CALLING IN ABSENCES
If your student is sick, in quarantine or you are keeping them home out of an abundance of caution, please remember to call our attendance at 303-683-7836.
At this time, there will be no synchronous instruction that will take place for students who are absent. Students will have two days for every one day they are absent to complete their assignments and check-in with their teachers.
Please note: Extended absences start on the 11th school day that a student is absent. If an absence continues past 10 days, parents will need to complete the Extended Absence Form.
Thank you,
STEM School Highlands Ranch Communications